A suspected Libyan militant leader charged with murder in the 2012 Benghazi attacks was cleared of most of the charges against him Tuesday.

Ahmed Abu Khattala faced 18 charges, but was convicted on only four, including conspiracy to provide material support for terrorism and weapons charges, CBS News reported.

Abu Khattala faces up to 15 years in prison for each of the two terrorism counts, and up to 20 years for the destruction of property. His weapons charge — using a semiautomatic weapon in a crime of violence — could get him life in prison, and carries a 10-year minimum sentence.

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The prosecution sought to prove Abu Khattala was a ringleader of the plot to attack the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, on Sept. 11, 2012.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael C. DiLorenzo said Abu Khattala helped direct the actions of those who killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.

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“There may be other participants, but they are acting in concert with his men,” DiLorenzo said, as reported by The Washington Times. “His army, his militia that operates outside the law, is the tip of the spear in this attack.”

The defense said Abu Khattala was simply a local resident who was drawn to the scene of the attack by the violence.

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But defense attorney Michelle Peterson argued that one government witness received $7 million to testify against Abu Khattala.

CIA director Mike Pompeo said in a statement to CIA staffers after the verdict was announced that “a small measure of justice was meted out.”

“It took intelligence to find him, soldiers to assist in capturing him, law enforcement to interview him, and a legal team to put him away,” Pompeo said. “Khattala’s sentencing is to follow; but no term in prison will bring our people back.”

The trial was viewed as a test of the civilian court system’s ability to try foreign terrorism suspects captured by American armed forces, instead of trying them through the military.

“If it were to go wrong in some way for the government, it will certainly be seized upon by critics of the criminal justice process as a tool for counterterrorism — notwithstanding the endless number of successful Justice Department terrorism prosecutions that have already occurred,” Robert Chesney, a University of Texas law professor, told The New York Times as the trial began in October.

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University of Texas law professor Stephen I. Vladeck said sentencing will determine whether the civilian court route worked properly.

“To my mind, the verdict is much less important than whether the government at the end of the day is able to incapacitate someone like Abu Khattala,” he said.

Alice Hunt Friend, a Pentagon official who oversaw Africa security policy matters from 2009 to 2014, said the trial showed difficulties with the civilian system and “how very, very difficult it is to track individual terror threats to Americans” and to gather evidence to win prosecution.

“To go through the details of trying to marshal evidence sufficient to convict someone of a crime is a window into the kind of evidence needed in order to understand their tactics and to try to prevent” an attack, Friend told The Washington Post. “It is an enormous challenge.”